The San Francisco 49ers are slowly starting to see some of their players come back, with the running back position finally getting healthy again.
The returns of Christian McCaffrey, Kaelon Black, and Jordan James allowed for Sunday night’s trade with the New Orleans Saints, where the 49ers sent running back Zamir White for linebacker Deion Jones.
This past Thursday, we got an early look at Black in action, and he impressed in a multitude of ways. While he only had 33 yards on eight carries, Black had several
impressive runs with his vision and ability to find holes, while also holding up very well in pass protection.
We have yet to see his running mate, Jordan James, in the preseason, as a rib injury on the first day of training camp held him out for the past few weeks. But, the 2025 fifth-round pick finally returned to practice on Saturday, and is now set up for a big role in San Francisco’s third preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders, according to offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak.
“Really happy to see Jordan back out there,” Kubiak said on Sunday. “We’ve loved Jordan. We’ve been excited about him. It’s just been unfortunate not having him on the field as much, but he looks good. He’s in really good shape. I think seeing other young players get out there and have success makes him hungry. He knows, ‘I’ve got to get out there. I’ve got to show what I can do.’
Following Black’s strong performance in Week 2 of the preseason, James is ready for his moment to shine.
“Seeing Kaelon get some of those reps, he’s stepped up,” Kubiak continued about James. “He’s had two really good practices, in my opinion. So, we’re excited about his future. I’m going to say the same thing I said about Kaelon, though. He’s got to keep getting better. He’s got to keep going out there and practicing. Stay healthy. This will be a big, important game for him. He’s going to get a lot of reps. I want to see how he looks in the game and just keep going.”
While the 49ers have a couple of unproven guys behind Christian McCaffrey in their running back room, they’re in a much better shape than they were last week with all of the injuries.
“Yeah, I don’t want to slight the guys who were out there at all. The guys who were out there were battling, competing, and did a heck of a job,” Kubiak said about the running back room with injuries. “But we drafted these guys for a reason, these young backs who we’re real excited about. It’s good to have them out there healthy. I was really pleased with the guys who were out there too and who were working and getting the most out of those guys. But these are the guys we wanted here from the draft that we think have a lot of ability. And so, just got to keep stacking days with those guys.”
James should get a ton of opportunity in the final preseason game, although Black’s availability and play seems to have catapulted him up the depth chart.
